African Lion '06
Dr. Hibbs spent his two week Navy Reserve duty participating in Operation African Lion 2006 from May22-June 6, 2006.
Release Date: Jun 09, 2006 By Capt. Chrystal Smith GUELMIM, Morocco – Thirty-three joint active duty military, civilian and
reserve medical personnel returned home from the Sahara desert after
participating in the African Lion 06, a medical humanitarian exercise conducted
in Morocco in late May.
ADAY, Morocco - Navy Capt. J. Eric Hibbs, 4th Dental Company, Joint Reserve Base
Fort Worth, Texas, maneuvers to extract a tooth from one of the hundreds of
daily patients treated during the humanitarian medical exercise African Lion
2006. (DoD Photo by Air Force Capt Chrystal Smith)
435th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
Doctors, nurses and technicians representing obstetrics and gynecology,
optometry, dentistry, family practice, internal medicine, dermatology and
pediatrics were assembled to provide medical care to citizens in the remote
Moroccan region in late May.
The experience was life altering for many of the providers, despite the fact
their specialties enabled them to touch the lives of more than 9,400 Moroccan
citizens during a seven-day exercise.
“This changed my life,” said Capt. Alvin Barber, 435th Medical Squadron
physician assistant. “I left a piece of my heart in Morocco. The people were
the most grateful I have ever seen. You could tell that each person would give
you the shirt from their back in return for the help they received.”
Barber, who works in Ramstein’s Family Practice Clinic, arrived in Morocco a
few days ahead of the main body as a member of the advance team to assist the
lead planner on final touches for the humanitarian mission. Throughout the
mission he provided pediatric care to children.
The team saw an average of 700 to 1,300 patients per day, fitted more than 1,200
people with their own pair of adaptive eyewear and filled nearly 20,000
prescriptions.
Many on the mission were seasoned for the task ahead, but first-timer Air Force
Capt. Paul Hilfer, 435th Dental Squadron dentist, was not sure what to expect.
“I expected that I would be pulling teeth and practicing limited dentistry,”
he said. “What I didn’t anticipate was how much I would be impacted by the
humble and grateful attitudes of everyone. You can’t describe the satisfaction
of treating such a patient population—every little aspect of care given made a
difference in their lives and you could see it in their smiles.”
Daily, half of the team went out to a designated village, while the other half
received people at the Guelmim Military Hospital. A different mixture of the
team visited a new village everyday, in the end visiting a total of seven. They
provided medical care to citizens of the villages of Aday, Amtodi, Timoulay,
Ifrane, Afrkrat, Labiar and Taghjist. The average patient load, split between
the designated village site and the Guelmim Military Hospital, was about 1,300
per day.
“You could see that many of the people we saw were apprehensive at first,”
said Barber. “They quickly gave us the trust we needed to give them the best
care we could in the given environment.”
Even though the team worked long hours under the heat of the desert sun and in
austere conditions, there was a reward in the cultural exchange.
Air Force Reserve Command took the lead for planning the medical portion of this
exercise about six months prior to execution. Col. Debora Esque, AFRC theater
medical planner, wore the hats of lead planner and deployed commander of medical
personnel for this mission.
Exercise African Lion is a regularly-scheduled, bi-lateral exercise for the U.S.
and Moroccan ground forces to promote improved interoperability and mutual
understanding of each nation’s tactics, techniques and procedures.